LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) is a national nonprofit on a mission to transform children's futures through early talk technology and data-driven programs. LENA works with a wide range of partner organizations to boost early brain development and improve kindergarten readiness for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
Since 2017, LENA has served 4,000 children and 850 early childhood educators in Ohio, and LENA technology has recorded over 3.5 million conversational turns. Put your community on the map!
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LENA Grow
offers evidence-based professional development for infant, toddler, and preschool teachers.
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LENA Start
builds school readiness and strengthens families with parent-group classes.
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LENA SP
offers reliable, detailed language environment data in research and clinical applications.
The Ohio Child Care Resource & Referral Association (OCCRRA) has adopted LENA Grow as a professional development and technical assistance program available in all 12 service delivery areas across the state. LENA and OCCRRA will work together to report on the state of early talk in Ohio, identify best practices for local implementation, and successfully scale our work together.
Teachers earn professional development hours that are required by child care licensing and through Step Up to Quality. LENA Grow 1 is approved for 4.5 hours, LENA Grow 2 is approved for 3.5 hours for teachers, and the LENA Grow Coach training is approved for 4.5 train-the-trainer hours in the Ohio Professional Registry.
LENA has crosswalks with Head Start, CLASS, The Pyramid Model, ZERO TO THREE, and more!
“OCCRRA chose LENA because of its intriguing established practice-based approach tracking conversational turns for each child. Ohio recognizes the critical need for early talk, for each child, which is supported throughout Ohio’s Early Learning and Development Standards, and targeted in the Language and Literacy Domain. LENA also aligns with Ohio’s Early Childhood Core Knowledge & Competencies and is a critical component in the Learning Environments & Experiences and Child Growth & Development Areas. ... LENA actively supports OCCRRA’s priority of educating early care and education professionals so young children reach their fullest abilities and are prepared to enter Kindergarten.”
LENA is scaling quickly and has a goal to impact over 100,000 children annually worldwide by 2025. Whether you're with a library, school district, CCR&R, state agency, university-community partnership, public health initiative, or any other organization interested in improving early childhood outcomes, we invite you to learn more about bringing LENA to your community.
Connect with
Luis Bernal,
Regional Partnerships Director
LuisBernal@LENA.org
"One of our teachers actually said, ‘You know, I love this tool because it reminds me that I’m having meaningful interactions with these children and that it’s helping them to grow,’ which I just think is such a beautiful light bulb moment to see."
Read these and other stories about partner success stories and research findings in Ohio and beyond.
Approximately one in four children experiences very little adult-child interaction, even within classrooms at centers that have achieved the highest QRIS rating possible.
LENA Grow is designed to make every interaction count in early childhood education. The new enhancements make it easy, inclusive, and equitable.
Highlights from a webinar where we hear directly from a teacher, coach, and administrator using LENA Grow.
While we’ve long known about the importance of early adult-child interactions, a research focus on children’s language experiences in child care classrooms has been long overdue.
Many previous studies have drawn connections between the quantity of back-and-forth interactions in early childhood and later linguistic and cognitive skills. Importantly, newly published research conducted in Chile has taken a novel direction, determining that infants’ language environments predict their socioemotional skills one year later.
Being an early childhood educator has always been challenging, but it seems to be getting harder. Crashing into yet another COVID wave in 2022, retaining staff and making them feel valued is top of mind. Yet, more often than not, we forget to ask the most important stakeholders of all: the teachers themselves.
